Archivist of the United States

David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, gave his “State of the Archives” address on 3 December 2009. He quotes from Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, the first US Archivist in 1934, who wrote about the state of the official records of that country.

‘…45.0 per cent of the total are infested with silverfish, cockroaches, and other insects, rats, mice, and other vermin, and exposed to such hazards as dirt, rain, sunlight, theft, and fire. More than…46.0 per cent of the total were in depositories that were dark, dirty, badly ventilated, crowded, and without facilities for work. Typical was the case of valuable records relating to Indian affairs which were found on dust-covered shelves mingled higgledy-piggledy with empty whiskey bottles, pieces of soap, rags, and other trash. In another depository crowded with the archives of the Government the most prominent object to one entering the room was the skull of a dead cat protruding from under a pile of valuable records. If a cat with nine lives to risk in the cause of history could not survive the conditions of research in the depositories of our national archives, surely the poor historian with only one life to give his country may be excused if he declines to take the risk’.

It would be fruitful to have a position such as ‘Archivist of Ireland’, in order to champion the cause of archives.